The Daily Zeitgeist - Weekly Zeitgeist 8 (Best of 1/22/18-1/26/18)

Episode Date: January 28, 2018

The weekly round up of the best moments from DZ's Season 15 (1/22/18-1/26/18.) Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informat...ion.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th 2017 was assassinated. Crooks Everywhere unearthed the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks Everywhere starting September 25th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Kay hasn't heard from her sister in seven years. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do.
Starting point is 00:00:42 What was that? That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. Can Kay trust her sister or is history repeating itself? There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller
Starting point is 00:00:54 from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What happens
Starting point is 00:01:03 when a professional football player's career ends and the applause fades and the screaming fans move on? or wherever you get your podcasts. answers. You mix homesteading with guns and church. Voila! You got straight away. They try to save everybody. Listen to Spiraled on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In California during the summer of 1975, within the span of 17 days and less than 90 miles, two women did something no other woman had done before, try to assassinate the President of the United States. One was the protege of Charles Manson. 26-year-old Lynette Fromm, nicknamed Squeaky.
Starting point is 00:01:53 The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer. This season on the new podcast, Rip Current. Hear episodes of Rip Current early and completely ad-free and receive exclusive bonus content by subscribing to iHeartTrue Crime Plus only on Apple Podcasts. Hello, the Internet, and welcome to this episode of the weekly Zeitgeist. These are some of our favorite segments from this week,
Starting point is 00:02:20 all edited together into one nonstop infotainment laughstravaganza. Yeah. So without further ado, here is the weekly zeitgeist. So over the weekend, there was a women's march on Saturday that the mainstream media didn't make too much of a dent in the mainstream media. Apparently, the Sunday shows didn't really cover it, maybe because it wasn't quite as big as last year's. And so, you know, they felt like the, you know, the media always needs to go bigger and there has to be sort of an arc to their story. But it's wild how little they actually spoke about it.
Starting point is 00:03:06 Like NBC, I think on Meet the Press, Chuck Todd's show had, I think, the longest discussion about it. And it was 20 seconds. Like other people just had like in the opening monologue about, yeah, women are marching or like or people just referencing the march. But it wasn't like a topic that was actually discussed on those shows. And those are kind of those a lot of a topic that was actually discussed on those shows. And those are kind of – a lot of people get their news from those Sunday morning shows. So it's a little odd that they did that and then you couple that with like the straight fuckery on Fox or they're like trying to spin those marches as being something – anything other than people pushing back on like what this new administration's agenda has been with women.
Starting point is 00:03:44 Yeah. Wait. Did they really try and push that agenda yeah they're well i know trump tweeted some shit is like oh yeah record unemployment joke right like he was trolling yeah and i think i mean i think on fox they were kind of like walking that tightrope of being like is that was that a joke or what how are we really talking and blah blah it wasn't like that's how they were covering it if they even covered it at all but that did come up once or twice yeah sort of the sarcastic trolling from trump and and uh the trump administration's propaganda wing fox news uh is really tone deaf when you like look at it next to that halsey poem the the artist halsey like uh unleashed this you know uh it's like a five minute long poem of just growing up amid sexual assault and sexual uh abuse and
Starting point is 00:04:36 just you know it i don't know it's pretty affecting and then to to then go over to twitter and read trump be like haha good good day good weather for all these women to get out right it's like come on the fuck yeah well yeah that halsey poem was uh very moving i was i mean she's i haven't really listened to her music but yeah me neither but now i'm gonna force myself to because it was pretty dope yeah and it was big everywhere too because like what i think uh la probably had the biggest showing of of all the cities right right i think they said a half million people came out yeah i think the estimates were 250 000 were gonna come and uh 500 000 people
Starting point is 00:05:19 showed up so uh i went down there with my wife and her friend and our son, and it was pretty cool. It was just cool to be there among all that positive energy. There were some Trump supporters standing there with Trump flags and don't tread on me flags. They were three blocks away from where any of the people who are marching were it was like really weird and they were like surrounded by police barricades uh but it wasn't clear like what they were being protected from or what they were being held back from because nobody was around them they were just on this street corner that was like completely barren right and like waving their flags for good reason yeah go over here. Ain't nobody going to see you. Like literally nobody could see you.
Starting point is 00:06:07 Were there any funny signs at the protest? Yeah. Yeah, there were some good ones. Most of the ones that I saw were on Twitter. There was the one of notice how few Nazis are at our march was a strong one. Yeah, I think the lack of Nazis. Yeah, notice the lack. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:06:28 Yeah, there was some Harry Potter one that was like Harry would have been dead in the first book without Hermione or something like that. Another one that was great was just, ugh, where do I even begin? Yeah. Exhausted. There was I hate crowds, but but i hate trump more which is solid if this march is about accountability 57 of white women voted for misogyny whoa heavy heavy well that's wild because i think it was in vegas the head of planned parenthood cecile richards she kind of made mention of that in her, the Women's March for Power to the
Starting point is 00:07:05 Polls, where she was kind of saying like, hey, like white women need to do better, which is, you know, pretty significant considering the sort of, yeah, I think we have a clip of it. We can just kind of play one part of what she said. All across the country, the Women's March inspired doctors and teachers and mothers to become activists and organizers and yes, candidates for office. And from Virginia to Alabama and to last week in Wisconsin, women have beaten the odds to elect our own to office.
Starting point is 00:07:32 That's right. Women of color, transgender women, rural and urban women. And these victories were led and made possible by women of color. So, right? So white women, listen up. We've got to do better. We've got to do better. They should drop the mic.
Starting point is 00:07:57 We got the fuck off stage. Yeah, it was just the amount of coverage. It's wild how much, if you are on Twitter or you have your own way of getting news, how much we were hearing about this. Right. But, yeah, that's what makes the sort of omission of talking about it from these other shows a little odd. Because I get it. Last year, that was technically, I think, the largest demonstration in the history of the country. And I guess because there wasn't a superlative this time, it wasn't?
Starting point is 00:08:21 Or is this like some kind of weird, subtle backlash of like, well, I guess we're done talking about this. Like, are the producers of these shows saying like, OK, we've got enough. We get it. Yeah. Sexual assault. This is fucking millions of people out here. You don't want to talk about it. Come on.
Starting point is 00:08:37 That was last week's story. What are we talking about this week? Right. There's also my neck, my back, my pussy will grab back. I like that uh there was also this episode of black mirror sucks which is a pretty good one um yeah and there were some speeches by scarlett johansson who specifically called out uh i think it was actually implicitly called out james franco uh and then her publicists confirmed. People were like, you were talking about James Franco, right?
Starting point is 00:09:09 Her publicists were like, yes, officially. And Viola Davis. So those were some people who gave pretty powerful speeches at the one in Los Angeles, I believe. One in Los Angeles, I believe. So all in pretty, I don't know, exciting movement and exciting weekend that just didn't translate to the mainstream media for some reason. Let's move on to better news, guys. The Super Bowl is set or the big game. Oh, yeah. Don't say that.
Starting point is 00:09:41 Don't say that shit. Has anybody ever been sued for saying the Super Bowl on a podcast? Oh, yeah. I don't know, but let's try it out. Super Bowl, Super Bowl, Super Bowl, Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is set. Gucci gang, Gucci gang, Super Bowl. And Philadelphia made it.
Starting point is 00:09:58 Yeah. The stands were rowdy. The after party was rowdier. rowdy the after party was rowdier there's a great video of a guy running after a train a train that he just missed and just face planning into a into a sign like it's it's literally out of like a fairly brothers trailer for a film where it's like wait for me yeah it goes right to the steel beam yep if you guys i mean these eagles fans have been nuts for years i've heard the story that It's like, wait for me. And it goes right to the steel beam. Yep. It's comedic. I mean, these Eagles fans have been nuts for years. Is there a better story than the 70s? They booed Santa Claus.
Starting point is 00:10:31 Yep. Well, Philly is notorious for having the most aggressive fans. There's nothing worse than them hating their own players. Yeah. Right. Yeah, they booed Donovan McNabb when he was drafted. He ended up being their best quarterback ever. Speaking of funny signs, somebody in the Eagles stand, because they were playing Minnesota, had a funny sign.
Starting point is 00:10:52 It just said, Prince sucks. Just to take shots at Minnesota. God damn. There were signs up around the Coliseum or around where the game was being played telling Vikings fans that after the game, they should take off their jersey when leaving so they don't get attacked and beat up. Oh, they were like public service signs? And apparently they were throwing stuff at Vikings fans as they walked into the game. And then they just beat them mercilessly. So yeah, were they merciful? And they're like, hey, look, you obviously took L, so we're not going to rob you now.
Starting point is 00:11:33 Yeah, I think they just took it out on light poles. Apparently light poles are a big concern because the police took precautions as the game started getting out of control. And the Eagles were up by a couple touchdowns. The police started greasing up street poles with cans of Crisco. It was apparently at least four hours before the game knowing that if
Starting point is 00:11:56 the Eagles won, everybody would be trying to climb. I love that they're so prepared. They're like, do we have our 70 gallons of Crisco on deck in case we win? Yeah, we've got a moron proof of the city. Yeah, exactly. Man, well, you know, good for the Eagles.
Starting point is 00:12:13 I'm not, look, as most people know, I'm not a huge NFL fan because last time I checked on the Eagles, Deuce Staley was playing, so that shows you what year I'm operating from. But good to them. Shout-outs to the homie Chris, too, because I know that's his team. So, you know, we're rooting for y'all. And the Patriots also made it, which do we even have to say that anymore? The only good thing— It was actually a really good game, and they almost lost.
Starting point is 00:12:35 And I am a shamed Patriots fan. You are? Yeah, yeah. What the fuck? Since back before when they were like the underdogs going up against like the unbeatable St. Louis Rams offense and rookie Tom Brady came out of nowhere to beat them. Yeah, I've been a fan since I was in high school. I used to go to Patriots games and watch fucking Drew Bledsoe when they sucked. No way.
Starting point is 00:13:01 Fucking Vinny Testaverde and shit? Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. when they suck so fucking vinnie testaverti and shit yeah yeah so uh yeah i didn't realize yo that's so funny because you fucking you act like you're a neutral and then suddenly you're like i'm an ashamed patriots man wow look at you it's it's dark it's it's yeah and also robert kraft yeah exactly but my favorite story about him is how putin fucking straight up stole his super bowl right he putin asked like to see his super bowl ring like a bully in like third grade and let me see that and just walked out and craft was like wait
Starting point is 00:13:32 where is he going right and then apparently the kgb guys straight up like created a like put a block up for him like all right get out of here vladdy um here are some things that you could have heard if you were listening in on the Philadelphia police scanner last night. This is Sports Illustrated. Wait, they were listening to the police scanner? Yeah, they listened in on the police scanner. Quote, we've got a guy climbing a light pole, so the Crisco did not work. They immediately were like, I'm going to climb that shit right away.
Starting point is 00:14:07 Uh, there's a guy running nude. He's carrying a green t-shirt and a pair of jeans, a black male and cowboy hat throwing fireworks into the crowd. Uh, police officers made a call for a strike force team. Uh, we're going to get people off the statue next. He's standing on top of the bus stand. We lost the intersection. Like, it's like a fucking military battle.
Starting point is 00:14:30 Like, they pushed through. Yeah. Lost territory. There was a bus with NFL personnel that was stuck in traffic. Like, they couldn't get out of the game because of just the citywide riot happening. And the police said, we have a crowd breaking out their windows. Jesus. And nobody got hurt though, right?
Starting point is 00:14:49 No, I don't think so. Other than that guy who faceplanted into the – Yeah, that was – yeah, RIP. That's worth checking out. Well, that's good. Yeah. I'm glad – these things can be so cathartic for people. So despite the Crisco, keep ascending that pole, y'all.
Starting point is 00:15:07 Right. So we want to talk again about the government shutdown. We mentioned it yesterday. We knew that they had breached a deal to end the shutdown. People were talking about the Democrats caving. to end the shutdown. People were talking about the Democrats caving. So now that we know exactly what the details are of the deal, we wanted to revisit the shutdown that was. So looking on the bright side for people who have hearts, I guess, CHIP is funded. So, I mean, that's nine million vulnerable poor people who now have coverage for health care. You know, it's children who can now pay for their health care. So that's good.
Starting point is 00:15:58 The Democrats are kind of spinning that as like the thing that they won, or at least I've seen it spun that way in a couple places. And I mean, it's important to note that that was there on the table. The Republicans had agreed to fund Chip before the shutdown. The Democrats had said, no, we want to shut down and hold out for DACA. And then they eventually just went back to, OK, yeah, we're good with that thing you offered before. So, yeah. Why did they do that? It was like sort of a waffle, right? Yeah, well, I think clearly it's not like a straight up victory, like a masterstroke of negotiating tactics, because that was always them saying like, hey, just let's fund the government and you can get chip funded and the Democrats wanted daca but now that that's off
Starting point is 00:16:48 the table they can no longer draw this connection because that was sort of the messaging from the gop2 was trying to say the the democrats are choosing these dreamers over american people like such as vulnerable children who need health insurance so now that that's off the table that can have there can be a little bit of a cleaner discussion now when we're talking about DACA and why if there is another threat of a shutdown, like what September, September. They sort of weaponized chips so that they had this thing to hang over the Democrats head and say, this is, you know, what you're saying. You don't want to fund in favor of DACA. So it's you know, it's a they're playing chess better than the Democrats. In that case, the Republicans were. I understand, though, why people are kind of get it reacting so negatively to the Democrats just immediately caving, because the Democrats have historically not been able to hold the line on anything like populist. They just their immediate instinct is to go centrist. That was the case with like Hillary Clinton
Starting point is 00:18:07 going with Hillary over Bernie. I mean, so the Republicans have a populist movement and they have ever since the Tea Party kind of burst on the scene and started taking advantage of the fact that America is super racist and wanted a reason to hate Obama. The Democrats, like, don't really have a populist movement.
Starting point is 00:18:34 I mean, they're sort of getting one with this sort of the resistance and this leftward pull. But I just feel like populism is going to be the wave of the next 20 years, like as information is freed and more people are more informed and like understand how unjust the system is. inequality because that's like a position that nobody has really staked out as their own and it's like probably the biggest problem in america and it should be a huge advantage like the you know trump talked towards it but then once he got into office he specifically like you know enacted policies that were completely the exact opposite of it. So it seems like it should be a huge advantage for Democrats since nobody is filling that role, and it would seem to have the truth on its side. But I feel like the Democrats who are in power
Starting point is 00:19:35 are sort of continuing to play politics. Yeah, it shows their meta strategy that has been for a long time of just like we're going to try to gain momentum by being the rational party, by, you know, finding compromise and stuff like that. But it really just ends up like our government just goes farther to the right when they cave in things like this in smaller and smaller ways. Well, you can see that, like, clearly the people who voted no, right, on this CR yesterday, those are the people who are going to be running on that populist message. Like, you know, like the Jell-O brands, the Elizabeth Warrens, the Kamala Harris's, the Cory Booker's, the Bernie Sanders of the world. They clearly did that because they know that they are going to hang their hat on that vote. And they're also going to be like, look, they know who their base is that they are trying to appeal to with that vote.
Starting point is 00:20:28 And I think that's why, and it seems, and I guess when you see that these are kind of the people who are starting to emerge as likely people to run in 2020, that I think that we will see that message come back. I mean, Elizabeth Warren is, I mean,
Starting point is 00:20:40 talking about like economic inequality for forever. Yeah. Right. There's certainly a statement by the way? Yeah. What was Oprah's statement? What was Monique's statement? Yeah, there are certainly Democrats who are kind of moving in that populist direction.
Starting point is 00:20:56 It just seems like overall like whoever is in control of the party like the Schumers and like the just the democratic party writ large tends to always go in the centrist direction well yeah because i mean look you do tom perez the head of the dnc and he is not he is not of this this ilk of uh democrat like this is you know i think it's where there's going to be a generational shift i think that's where the next iteration is that's why there's such a you know for all the fracturing and uh factioning off that's where the next iteration is. That's why there's such a, you know, for all the fracturing and factioning off that's happening in the Republican Party, it's it's happening in the Democratic Party, too, because there's clearly a there's a large group of people who are like, you know, we can go we can go harder. Like we can go we can do better and we can we can fight a little bit harder. Yeah, it just seems crazy to me that neither party has been like we are the party that does what's best for the majority of the country and then like actually does that. Like that's nobody. Nobody has done that. Like Trump had the, you know, used some of the talking points to suggest that he would do that and then did did the opposite.
Starting point is 00:22:08 did the opposite. But yeah, nobody has been like, hey, we are both not racist and interested in helping the vast majority of the country that is poor or poorer than the people who are in power. So I don't know. All right. We got to take a quick break, guys, but we will be right back. But we will be right back. I've been thinking about you. I want you back in my life. It's too late for that. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project.
Starting point is 00:22:38 All you need to do is record everything like you always do. One session. 24 hours. BPM 110, 120. She's terrified. Should we wake her up? Absolutely not. What was that?
Starting point is 00:22:53 You didn't figure it out? I think I need to hear you say it. That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything? You're allowed to be doing this? We passed the review board a year ago. We're not hurting people. There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing.
Starting point is 00:23:11 They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It was December 2019 when the story blew up. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, former Packers star Kabir Bajabiamila caught up in a bizarre situation. KGB explaining what he believes led to the arrest of his friends at a children's Christmas play. A family man, former NFL player, devout Christian, now cut off from his family and connected to a strange arrest. I am going to share my journey of how I went from
Starting point is 00:23:53 Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. I got swept up in Kabir's journey, but this was only the beginning. In a story about faith and football, the search for meaning away from the gridiron and the consequences for everyone involved you mix homesteading with guns and church and a little bit of the spice of conspiracy theories that we liked voila you got straight away i felt like i was living in north korea but worse if that's possible listen toiraled on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1982, Atari players had one thing on their minds. Sword Quest. This wasn't just a new game. Atari promised $150,000 in prizes to four finalists.
Starting point is 00:24:39 But the prizes disappeared. And what started as a video game promotion became one of the most controversial moments in 80s pop culture. I just don't believe they exist. I mean, my reaction, shock and awe. That sword was amazing. It was so beautiful. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Sword Quest, a podcast about the fall of Atari and the disappearing Sword Quest prizes.
Starting point is 00:25:05 We'll follow the quest for lost treasure across four decades. It's almost like a metaphor for the industry and Atari itself in a way. Listen to The Legend of Sword Quest on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president was the target of two assassination attempts, separated by two months. These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago when President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in less than three weeks. President Gerald R. Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin today. Gerald R. Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin today.
Starting point is 00:25:49 And these are the only two times we know of that a woman has tried to assassinate a U.S. president. One was the protege of infamous cult leader Charles Manson. I always felt like Lynette was kind of his right-hand woman. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI in a violent revolutionary underground. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer. This is Rip Current. Available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:26:24 And we're back. Speaking of propaganda. So the fake news will tell you no. The sessions was interviewed by Mueller. Apparently, we're just learning this. Trump says he doesn't care. He's totally cool with it. So what are the details of this? I mean, clearly, so yes, Jeff Sessions last week was interviewed by Robert Mueller for several hours. And I couldn't think of any reason why you would want to interview Jeff Sessions unless it's about the times he was lying about meeting with Russian ambassadors or maybe committing a little bit of perjury talking about his Russia connections or that he knew about Jared Kushner and his involvement. I mean there's many things, but I don't know.
Starting point is 00:27:13 I couldn't tell you why. But clearly – I mean yes, I have a feeling that Robert Mueller was really putting him to the sword to try and get some answers out of him to begin trying to figure out what is going on in on in all this russia shit but can i ask a question yeah why do we think he's going to tell the truth now i well i think now it could be easier to he's not he hasn't been in front of a grand jury or anything like that so if he lies it's there it's less i think the the stakes are lower versus now lying to like real federal investigators because now that's that's a completely different bag of worms because he can put a case together and be like, you actually completely deceived this investigation.
Starting point is 00:27:51 So I think there's definitely that degree of, you know, that this is a different set of circumstances than before, like whether it's a confirmation hearing where he first lied and things like that, where this is completely different because now he's involved in an investigation. So wasn't everything he said up until now was not against the law. Well, I think clearly people are saying that we're making the case. But I think now it's to the point where we just want to make sure we can get the proper full view of what is happening here and hold everyone responsible from the point of view of this investigation. Now it's double secret probation.
Starting point is 00:28:23 Yeah, exactly. And who knows already because clearly other people have talked to Mueller. People have already made plea deals. So I'm sure he has a set of facts that he's operating with and trying to sort of juxtapose that with whatever Sessions is saying. But what was interesting is that Jeff Sessions actually was really kind of coy about this meeting with the White House. Donald Trump was really like, hey, what did you talk about?
Starting point is 00:28:44 What were the questions? Give me the answers. Yeah, what was on the test? Did he ask about this thing with the white house donald trump was really like hey what did would you talk about what were the questions give me the answers yeah what was on the test like uh did he ask about this thing like just so i know who did he vote for yeah exactly and uh and and apparently jeff sessions was holding the cards pretty close to the chest so which is definitely not what the president wants to hear is no like oh don't worry about it nobody yeah exactly just not giving like non-detailed answers. Exactly. So that's why then you cut to this quote yesterday of they're asking like, hey, are you worried about this meeting? So he's like, oh, no, absolutely not.
Starting point is 00:29:12 I'm fine. It's great. It's fine. And then stop the interview. He's like, okay, no more questions. What? So clearly, you know, Trump is a little shook. But I guess that feeds into now this sort of new attempt from the GOP to sort of really begin discrediting the FBI, because that's become a huge news line throughout the last couple of weeks, whether it's apparently
Starting point is 00:29:32 Trump was leaning on Chris Wray to get rid of the deputy director of the FBI, Adam McCabe. And it just looks like they're trying to clean house a little bit at the FBI, because they're the one law enforcement agency that has the most information it seems like or their most vocal about their concerns about what was going on during the campaign hashtag release the memo right yeah and now the memo that so that huge hashtag that got circulated widely a lot of people were speculating like oh it's it's Russian bots that are you know are spreading this I mean to a certain extent that may be true but according to like Twitter's internal analysis someone at Twitter said it's it's being, you know, retweeted a lot in the States. But yeah, this memo that everyone's talking about is this report that
Starting point is 00:30:14 Republicans and the House Intelligence Committee were saying, like they have proof of like widespread surveillance abuse from the FBI and like that the FBI has this corrupt agenda to undermine the president and, you know, to to throw him out of office. And that's makes sense, I guess, when you're trying to discredit the people who have all the receipts and evidence that of all your wrongdoing. There's no better way to try and get no there's no better defense than to say the offense is lying. So, yeah. So they have this memo that's going around and it's just sort of ramping up more and more and more which looks like the actions of people who may have something to hide not people who are on the right side of things it's like roaches complaining that you turn the light on yeah right exactly and then saying that the light
Starting point is 00:31:00 is lying or like don't believe that this is this is artificial light we are not roaches either we are human beings so please do not kill us like i don't know how far you can go with that pretty far yeah apparently so now it's just getting kind of dangerous because you have actual senators like ron johnson went on fox news yesterday and is trying to push this like that the fbi has this secret society this is ron johnson talking to bre to Brett Baier on Fox last night. We have an informant that's talking about a group that were holding secret meetings off-site. There's so much smoke here. There's so much suspicion. Let's stop there.
Starting point is 00:31:34 A secret society, secret meetings off-site of the Justice Department. Correct. And you have an informant saying that? Yes. Is there anything more about that? No, we have to dig into wait where is this this was that's ron johnson talking to brett bayer like he's on the hill like you can clear he's i think he's in the capitol building based on that like echo right um no who's brett bayer
Starting point is 00:31:55 what what oh he's like a fox news anchor yeah can't you just discount this as uh oh what the comic book said yeah right the propaganda wing of the Trump administration. And so what's funny is, yeah, this is him saying, you know, there's a secret society and they're basing it off these texts that one of the guys in the FBI had said, like the day after the election that I think could have been read pretty flippantly of sort of like, oh, God, like, I guess I have these like secret secret society meetings now kind of thing. And they've just latched onto this one text to sort of justify this idea of there being this like other dark entity happening. What they don't talk about is that same FBI agent in the beginning of it. One of the texts they have was also him saying that he wasn't quite sure there was any there there with the Russia collusion thing. So it's funny that like rather than using this text, like they could hang hang up like well this fbi guy never thought there was anything they're being like this fbi guy started a secret society to try and undermine the president right um and now then you cut to lou dobbs uh who's my goodness he has fallen quite far uh he and trump are very very close they go way back yes talk on a regular
Starting point is 00:33:02 basis yeah so this is what lou dobbs was pushing in his opening monologue of his show last night on Fox Business Channel. Good evening, everybody. It may be time to declare war outright against the deep state and clear out the rot in the upper levels of the FBI and the Justice Department. and the Justice Department. Yes, I said the rot. The FBI and the DOJ have broken the public trust by destroying evidence, defying oversight, and actively trying to bring down the Trump presidency. Tonight, there are new concerns that anti-Trump FBI officials formed even a secret society at the FBI to subvert the president after his election. It is like a comic book. Yeah, of course. It just sounds like second-rate propaganda.
Starting point is 00:33:52 Not even good. Yeah, it's not even good. They should learn more from the Russians on how to do it. Yeah, exactly. It's just really dangerous. If you are living in this Fox News bubble, that now they're trying to force-feed this idea that the FBI is actually the enemy of the state. Well, the only dangerous thing is that a third of the country believes this. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:34:13 Yeah. Right. It's that concerted kind of messaging machine of Fox News. And then when you go to Drudge Report, it is it has been nothing but memo gate ever since, you know, a few days ago. Now, Secret Society is one of the top headlines on on Drudge Report. Whistleblower colon Secret Society held off site meeting. know what the context is at all. There's also five months of missing messages between two FBI agents, I think, or two Department of... I mean, yeah, at this point, they're just really grasping at anything to try and give any kind of veracity to the...
Starting point is 00:34:56 They sure seem guilty. Yeah. Right. That's how guilty people act. Yeah, exactly. Attack everybody. It's like a rat in a corner. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:35:02 They're going to bite you. Yeah. And they're running out of teeth, basically. So we'll a rat in a corner. They're going to bite you. Yeah, and they're running out of teeth basically. So we'll see how crazy it gets. But yeah, clearly the FBI, time and time again, they have been the ones to uncover the lies or whenever someone has not been honest about their interactions with foreign governments and things. They've been willing to step in like actually we've surveilled the phone conversations and we know for a fact that that's a lie. So that's their tactic is like if you discredit the FBI, then maybe they can get the whole thing to go away. And so the release the memo, what memo are they talking about?
Starting point is 00:35:33 This is the one that the House Intel Committee is saying like we've been looking at some stuff and we've put together this report, this memo, this memorandum outlining all the abuses of power that we you know that the fbi is doing and overreaching with surveillance and they're like oh when you see this it's gonna blow your mind so the memo is produced by them yeah right it's produced by these people who want to claim who want to discredit the fbi's investigation right so they're just saying oh man if only you could see this thing we wrote over here and then they're trying to create like this groundswell of people being like, you should release it then release the memo. But I assumed when I saw that hashtag that it was some sort of primary document like that.
Starting point is 00:36:14 They were like, wait, wait, do you see this memo that we uncovered? But it's way do you see this memo that we wrote? Yeah. Wait till you see this book report. I did. Exactly. Okay. Why don't why don't you just tell us what you want to tell us?
Starting point is 00:36:28 But anyways. It's all grand theater. Yeah. So it's pretty bad theater. Yeah. Is there any indication that this is going to affect the Mueller investigation? We'll see. I mean, who's to know anymore?
Starting point is 00:36:43 I mean, because there's constantly been this threat of Mueller being fired. And who knows if it's going to happen if it doesn't? I think Sarah Huckabee Sanders yesterday said, oh, I can't. You know, we I don't we're not thinking about firing Mueller because the left wing media would go crazy. the optics from the media than you are like the actual investigation so uh we'll see she's a delight yeah and once again this is a great uh indication of you know what i've been talking about the past couple days about how the they talk about there being a left-wing bias in the media they actually have a whole corporation that is just regurgitating their talking points, like straight from like what they want them to say. It's going out directly to the audience. And the left doesn't have that. The left has people who are trying to tell both sides of the story.
Starting point is 00:37:37 And I think it's a huge disadvantage. I think that's how these crazy sort of conspiracy theories suddenly take off is that they're – the left has totally – it's like watching the Democrats try and negotiate with the GOP. And the GOP says, oh, well, you guys have a left-wing bias. And so that's the beginning of the argument that like the media is just starts from, well, we do have left wing bias. But the thing you have to understand is rather than, you know, having their own Fox News. So and by left wing, they mean human. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Or, you know, fact oriented.
Starting point is 00:38:21 Yeah. Right. But fact oriented. Yeah. Right. Now, in some news that does seem to be bringing us closer to some form of sci-fi dystopia. So there's a Reddit user named Deep Fakes who last year started making porn videos that had famous actresses faces like swapped onto the porn actors body. And, uh, he has since,
Starting point is 00:38:49 uh, created a subreddit, uh, where people are sharing these videos and it's like using algorithmic learning to, you know, swap faces of, you know, actresses onto porn stars.
Starting point is 00:39:02 But it seems like the sort of thing that we've talked before on the show about how pornography generally is at the forefront of technology. And this is probably another instance of that where, yes, the first thing we use this technology for is making pornography with Gal Gadot's face on a porn star's body. is making pornography with Gal Gadot's face on a porn star's body. But eventually this is going to cause the entire meltdown of society because – Whoa! Yo, I'm sorry.
Starting point is 00:39:37 I did not know what this looked like. So I'm sorry I interjected suddenly. I was like, what the hell just happened? I did not see that this, yo, this is scary. It's very realistic. It's very, very subtle. It's not like back in the day when I was looking at Spice Girl fake nudes as a young teenager on Sublime Directory. Right.
Starting point is 00:40:00 This is like, whoa. Okay, hold on. I don't even know how to show something that doesn't get us all sued. Right. Yeah, people can check it out in their own time. We were also watching a video. This is supposed to be Kristen Bell? Oh, Jesus. But that's pretty.
Starting point is 00:40:14 It does look like Kristen Bell. So they're just using celebrity still images. Right. And then using these algorithms to just project to face swap them out. Right. Wow. Kind of like they did with Tony Soprano's mom in season three. Yeah, but that was terrible.
Starting point is 00:40:28 Yeah, it was. She looked like the conductor on Polar Express. She had those dead eyes. It was like, yo. Oh, my God, yeah. That was so bad. Man, rest in peace. But yeah, that Kristen Bell video that Miles just showed the room and will eventually be fired for.
Starting point is 00:40:46 Thank you. Is very realistic looking. And yeah, I mean, there's a video went around, I think, late last year that had Obama saying different things. Like they had audio from Obama saying something when he was like 16 or something or probably older than that. And then they just like swapped it so that his face as the president was saying that and it you know looked completely realistic and um eventually this is going to change how like we won't be able to have videos like the access hollywood video uh of trump you Trump talking his shit without people being like, oh, it's a fake video.
Starting point is 00:41:27 Well, see, he was saying it was fake. So maybe Trump is time traveling. Well, yeah. He's like, you don't know what I've seen. His problem was that he didn't say it was fake until a year later. He spent a year saying it was real. Billy Bush was like, yeah, no, it's real. And then after a year, he was like, you know, that video might have been fake. He probably saw that Obama video. Right. Hey, can I say it's fake now? And then Billy Bush was like, yo, no, it's real. And then after a year, he was like, you know, that video might have been fake.
Starting point is 00:41:45 People saw that Obama video. Right. Hey, can I say it's fake? And then Billy Bush was like, yeah, that was not fake. But that's scary. Yeah. If you haven't even seen that, like they basically have Photoshop for your voice, you know, and like combining that with this kind of machine learning. I mean, I don't want to predict this, but I'm sure at one point there will be some kind of massive hoax that is very, very troubling because people are going to – this software will get very sophisticated and you're going to think you're seeing somebody saying or doing something that they absolutely didn't.
Starting point is 00:42:12 Oh, yeah. Yeah. Our writer Sam Raubman quoted an expert from the Electronic Frontiers Foundation who said, you can make fake videos with neural networks today, but people will be able to tell that you've done that if you look closely and some of the techniques involved remain pretty advanced. So it's hard to do. But that's not going to stay true for more than a year or two. So in a year or two, like around the next election, there's going to be the ability for everybody. Like you won't need to be an expert. It's like, look, Bernie's smoking crack.
Starting point is 00:42:46 Right. There's a lot of explaining to do. Yes. But that could work in the other way, too, because people can make wild fucking videos of Trump doing weird shit, too. So it'll probably just be a very fun smear campaign for everybody. The difficulty is there probably are wild videos of Trump. Like, for instance, there's supposedly this video out there
Starting point is 00:43:04 from the set of the apprentice where he would just say wildly racist things like during the taping of the apprentice desk parts like in the boardroom yeah in the boardroom just like in between shots and uh those you know videos those audio tapes exist somewhere. But by the time they get released, he'll be able to be like, those are fake. Not me. Fake news. Wow. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:43:34 Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, I believe, came out and pointed out that there was a text message, I believe, where one FBI agent talked to the other about having a secret society meeting. And so therefore, ergo, they are probably had a secret anti-Trump society where they were planning the takedown of the White House. Over the government. It's all happening. So here's Ron Johnson being questioned about that on NPR because when you see the entire context of that text message, it appears that they were saying that completely in jest. Yeah, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:44:14 It was the day after Trump was voted – like won the election and they were like, I guess we'll have to have a secret society meeting. And they just went secret. Oh, here we go. Yeah. Comet pizza. Right. meeting and they just went secret oh here we go yeah comet pizza right so today he was or maybe early this morning he was on npr asked about these comments that he made to brett bayer so first let's just hear when ron johnson came out swinging with the secret society shit we have we have an
Starting point is 00:44:38 informant that's talking about a group they were holding secret meetings off-site there are there's so much smoke here there's so much suspicion let's let's stop there a secret society the secret meetings off-site of the justice department correct and you have an informant saying that yes is there anything more about that no we have to dig into not but i mean though the way he said The way he said yes. And you have two informants? Yes. Yes. Yeah. So, yeah, then NPR was like, hey, do you know that?
Starting point is 00:45:11 That was like a joke, right? Right. And it's based on a text. Yeah. So this is him talking to someone that isn't on Fox News. Right. Okay. Well, you also focused on two words from one of the texts, which was a secret society. You know, I didn't.
Starting point is 00:45:22 Other people brought that up. You suggested this might mean a secret group within the FBI holding meetings off-site, and you went on to say this could mean corruption at the highest levels of the FBI. Now, that reference may have been a joke. I'm just wondering if you feel you might have jumped to conclusions here. No. All I was connecting was I have all kinds of people come in front of our committee giving us information, and I had heard that there were off-site meetings.
Starting point is 00:45:49 So I was just connecting the dots there. It could be a joke. Those off-site meetings could be completely harmless. Oh, wow. Something he didn't mention on Fox. Fucking sticking your fucking chest out on Fox. Fucking secret societies. And they're like, oh, yeah, that could be a joke.
Starting point is 00:46:04 It could be completely harmless. Right. But that was like months later, right? What? Oh, fucking secret societies. Right. And then it was like, oh, I mean, yeah, that could be a joke. It could be heartless. Right. But that was like months later, right? What? Oh, wait. No, no. That interview was the next day. The next day.
Starting point is 00:46:11 Right. So absolutely nothing had changed. And the other thing, too, I just want to bring up, like, with Trump, how quickly, it was so transparent he is something to hide when asked, like, will you, you know, speak to everyone? He was like, oh, I'll go under oath. Right. Like, really, really bluffing there.
Starting point is 00:46:26 Yeah. And then the second that his lawyers talk to him, he's like, well, my lawyers will have to lawyer. Yeah, well, my attorneys. Maybe I shouldn't do it. I don't know. him if trump is able to actually pull off not fully melting down in front of robert muller and self-perjuring himself uh like then maybe i'll believe that he has some kind of there is some hidden mental capacity in there yeah because in my mind the way this would play out was him just thinking he's talking to somebody that like is under him right and he can just say whatever the
Starting point is 00:47:01 fuck he wants to without like understanding that he is still this is a like criminal thing this is like a hey like you didn't you didn't wire my unit in your building for electricity blah blah blah like this is like criminal shit like this is a very different matter all right we're gonna take a quick break and we'll be right back i've been thinking about you. I want you back in my life. It's too late for that. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project.
Starting point is 00:47:34 All you need to do is record everything like you always do. One session. 24 hours. BPM 110. 120. She's terrified. Should we wake her up? Absolutely not. What was that? You didn't figure it out? I think I need to
Starting point is 00:47:53 hear you say it. That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything? You're allowed to be doing this? We passed the review board a year ago. We're not hurting people. There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams.
Starting point is 00:48:13 Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It was December 2019 when the story blew up. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A family man, former NFL player, devout Christian, now cut off from his family and connected to a strange arrest. I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. I got swept up in Kabir's journey. But this was only the beginning in a story about faith and football, the search for meaning away from the gridiron, and the consequences for everyone involved. You mix homesteading with guns and church and a little bit of the spice of conspiracy theories that we liked. Voila! You got straight away. I felt like I was living in North Korea, but worse, if that's possible. Listen to Spiraled on the iHeartRadio app,
Starting point is 00:49:21 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1982, Atari players had one thing on their minds. Sword Quest. This wasn't just a new game. Atari promised 150 grand in prizes to four finalists. But the prizes disappeared. And what started as a video game promotion became one of the most controversial moments in 80s pop culture. I just don't believe they exist. My reaction, shock and awe. That sword was amazing. It was so beautiful. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Sword Quest, a podcast about the fall of Atari and the disappearing Sword Quest prizes. We'll
Starting point is 00:50:03 follow the quest for lost treasure across four decades. It's almost like a metaphor for the industry and Atari itself in a way. Listen to The Legend of SwordQuest on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president was the target of two assassination attempts, separated by two months. These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago, when President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in less than three weeks. President Gerald R. Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin today. And these are the only two times we know of that a woman has tried to assassinate a U.S.
Starting point is 00:50:47 president. One was the protege of infamous cult leader Charles Manson. I always felt like Lynette was kind of his right-hand woman. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI in a violent revolutionary underground. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer. This is Rip Current.
Starting point is 00:51:10 Available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. We need to talk about what's going on in Russia right now. Yeah, they are trying to take down our democracy. Right. And they're also filming some pre-dope viral videos.
Starting point is 00:51:38 Oh. So we generally – the image of Russia that we get is that everybody is loyal to putin and it's this you know a bunch of hackers doing the bidding of their iron-fisted leader um and you know another thing that we hear about is how homophobic russia is uh i know people who visited there who you know it was a friday night and uh putin biker gang, who like is like secretly his paramilitary force, was going around like rounding up and beating up gay people in Russia. Just like that's how publicly homophobic the culture is over there. Well, apparently, like they don't get buy in on that culture from all generations. And, you know, younger Russians are actually sane Institute of Civil Aviation filmed themselves as like a bunch of dudes in their underwear, like twerking. And one dude was like deep throating a banana over and over again.
Starting point is 00:52:58 Deep throating the shit out of a banana. Like a fucking champ. And it went viral immediately. And, you know, the public outcry from the, you know, totally not state controlled media was like, these people should be ashamed of themselves. They're a disgrace to the aviation industry. saying, like, they're probably gay. Right. But then all these other colleges started filming their own version of this video. And, like, so now this is, like, the hot shit to do in Russian colleges. It's the new Harlem Shake. Right. It's the Harlem Shake of Russian colleges, which, by the way, I suggest you watch them just because they're fun videos, but also because you get an image of what Russian college looks like.
Starting point is 00:53:48 Yeah, or at least this dorm. Yeah, the dorm of the nearby agricultural college that uploaded the second twerking video looks like a haunted, abandoned hospital. It looks like the set of The Ring. It really does. It's like, damn, that's college in Russia. But it's just wild, though, too. Like, you know, because they were wearing, like, bondage outfits. Like, a couple of people had, like, gear that you're like, oh, okay, this might be your thing.
Starting point is 00:54:15 But, like, because Russia is so homophobic, like, I can totally see why this kind of thing is going to happen because it's treated as such a taboo, such a taboo that suddenly you get all these dudes together. Like the one where the guys like rubbing each other with shaving cream, like some of the videos do a really funny job of like escalating, like how homoerotic the behavior is. Yeah. Yeah. Just shout outs to you guys doing your thing. Seriously. Young men figuring it out, having a good time.
Starting point is 00:54:42 I'm always amused by like frat boy culture, like how far they're willing to take the joke just for the joke. Yeah, right. Because ha-ha, we're not gay. Hey, but kiss with more tongue though, man. That's not that guy's dick. Yeah, right. I don't know. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:54:57 Got him. This is just so funny to me that it starts off being like, this is unbelievable, and then just spreads. They're like, you know what? We're going to do the satisfaction challenge. memes in russia don't fuck around there is a uh a meme from probably like five to ten years ago that we covered on cracked about like there was some photograph of a guy hanging out his window by one hand because the husband had just come home and found him in bed. Oh, right. So that was an actual photograph that got taken,
Starting point is 00:55:29 and then it became a meme to be photographed hanging out of windows by one arm. And that was the cool, fun meme to be taken. Pretty hardcore. I will play with my life. Right. For the likes. Exactly. Pretty hardcore.
Starting point is 00:55:44 I will play with my life for the likes. Exactly. All right. That's going to do it for this week's weekly Zeitgeist. Please like and review the show if you like the show. It means the world to Miles. He needs your validation, folks. I hope you're having a great weekend, and I will talk to you Monday.
Starting point is 00:57:08 Bye. Thank you. I'm not going to lie. who on October 16th, 2017, was assassinated. Crooks Everywhere unearths the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks Everywhere starting September 25th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Kay hasn't heard from her sister in seven years. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. What was that? That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. Can Kay trust her sister or is history repeating itself? There's nothing
Starting point is 00:57:45 dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In California during the summer of 1975, within the span of 17 days and less than 90 miles, two women did something no other woman had done before. Tried to assassinate the president of the United States. One was the protege of Charles Manson. 26-year-old Lynette Fromm, nicknamed Squeaky. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI.
Starting point is 00:58:18 Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer, this season on the new podcast, Rip Current. Hear episodes of Rip Current early and completely ad-free and receive exclusive bonus content by subscribing to iHeart True Crime Plus only on Apple Podcasts. What happens when a professional football player's career ends
Starting point is 00:58:40 and the applause fades and the screaming fans move on? I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. For some former NFL players, a new faith provides answers. You mix homesteading with guns and church. Voila! You got straightway. They try to save everybody. Listen to Spiraled on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.